Monday, September 22, 2014

Riding the coastline, lifting on wind

Three of our satellite-tracked Swallow-tailed Kites made it to Brazil!Their GPS data indicate that Day
and Palmetto have almost caught up to MIA, who has been far ahead of the other
migrants since leaving Florida on 30 July. Two more of our tagged kites, Gulf
Hammock and Bluff, are in Peru. Pace is making his way through Panama and
PearlMS has passed overland through eastern Mexico.

Raptors often follow coastlines and mountain ranges during migration,
probably as an aid to navigation, but also to exploit the lift produced when winds
are deflected upward by ridges.

Satellite-tracking reveals how Swallow-tailed Kites use coastlines and mountain ranges as migrational aids.

These images show the tracks of six tagged
Swallow-tailed Kites moving south along the coastal plain of southern Costa
Rica and northern Panama.Note how close
their tracks are as they parallel the nearby coast, and how the kites make use
of the coastal mountain range to remain aloft using as little energy as
possible.

Can you imagine how many other
migrating Swallow-tailed Kites and other species of birds are using these
areas?We hope our tracking information
can be used by governments and conservation groups to help protect these valuable
migration corridors and to keep them safe for the countless numbers of birds
that rely on them each year.

The Swallow-tailed Kite blog is sponsored by:

Avian Research and Conservation Institute

Once seen along the Mississippi River as far north as Minnesota, the Swallow-tailed Kite's range is now just a third its historic size. In the last 40 years, up to 80% of formerly common bird species have declined.

ARCI works to develop management techniques for these at-risk birds, but we must apply them now, before their recovery becomes impossible.

Since 1996, we have used satellite telemetry to study the ecology of Swallow-tailed Kites, including the 10,000 mile migration they make each year to the humid plains of Brazil and back to the lowlands of the southeast U.S.

Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has gained attention and respect for difficult, problem-solving research on rare and imperiled birds.